Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications and Presentations

DEVELOPING PROFESSIONAL DISPOSITIONAL RESILIENCE AMONG TEACHER CANDIDATES: REFRAMING CHAOTIC EXPERIENCE AS RESOURCE FOR TEACHER LEARNING

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2021

Abstract

While engagement with content knowledge and pedagogical expertise enjoys considerable attention in teacher education, the simultaneous development of professional teacher dispositions remains a necessary task of teacher preparation. In this brief non-traditional paper, experiences of teacher candidates participating in a teacher preparation program and high school partnership pilot structured-field experience in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas are explored relative to the emergent development of teacherly dispositions. Initially, professional teacher disposition – and more particularly resilience as an essential type of teacherly disposition – is defined. Later, chaotic experiences arising within the context of participation in a research-supported structured-field program are framed as valuable opportunities for teacher candidates in situ learning of resilience as a vital professional disposition for future teaching. Crucially, a natural world-based multimodal pedagogical intervention foregrounding tacit engagement with resilience is described. In conclusion, three rudimentary strategies for how experiences of chaos and complexity can be integrated as a vital component of teacher preparation contexts are offered. Ultimately, this piece describes the need to explicitly engage chaotic situations within teacher preparation contexts to foster resilience as a quintessential disposition among teacher candidates preparing to engage the unforgiving complexity of teaching

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© 2021 Texas Association of Teacher Educators

Publication Title

THE TEXAS FORUM OF TEACHER EDUCATION

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